T-shirt designer chastised Bangor High student suspended for obscenity

BANGOR – An obscenity found hidden in the winning design of Bangor High School’s spirit week T-shirt has resulted in its designer being suspended from school and required to repay the shirt’s printing costs.

Bangor High School sophomore Joe Mucia designed the T-shirt, depicting a Bangor ram breaking through a brick wall, and was awarded $100 for his creation. But after the design was approved by high school administrators and 800 shirts had been printed, an obscenity was discovered hidden in the picture.

“This young man decided for reasons that are not clear to me that he was going to write something entirely inappropriate on the front of that T-shirt and completely subvert the spirit experience of the school,” Superintendent Robert “Sandy” Ervin said Friday. “It’s malicious.”

Mucia has been suspended from school for eight days and is being held accountable for the $2,400 it cost to buy and print the shirts. If he does not pay the money in the next 21/2 years, Mucia has been told, he will not be allowed to graduate, said Tony Alcala, a BHS sophomore and friend of Mucia. Alcala helped another friend of theirs, who wished to remain anonymous, create a Web site in support of Mucia.

Before discovering the hidden obscenity, some of the T-shirts already had been distributed to students, according to Neal McCram, head of BHS All Sports Boosters. He said Wednesday evening that as far as he knew, the majority of the shirts had been returned and students had been issued T-shirts with a new design. McCram was not involved in the selection of the design and had seen only the finished product.

The Bangor High athletic boosters and student council paid for the T-shirts and printing costs. The groups hold various fund-raisers throughout the year to be able to cover the cost.

The superintendent said he believed the original T-shirts had been returned to the printer but was not sure if they would be given to Mucia when he paid the $2,400.

“I suppose if he’s asked to pay for them, he has 800 T-shirts,” Ervin said.

However, Alcala said his friend had been told that even if he did pay for the shirts, he would not receive them.

Ervin suspects that word of the hidden obscenity probably reached faculty after Mucia bragged about it to other students.

“It’s pretty rare for students to be able to keep quiet about something like this,” Ervin said.

Ervin has declared that students will not be permitted to wear shirts bearing Mucia’s design in school.

BHS students have rallied in support of Mucia and are trying to help him raise the money he owes.

Alcala said Friday that a group of students had organized to have Mucia’s design put on more T-shirts. They plan to sell the shirts and use the profits to help Mucia.

“A lot of people are raising money around school,” Alcala said.

A Web site in support of Mucia also has been created at www.andy-akb.com. Students have posted messages, songs and poems of support over the last three days, and the site had received more than 1,700 hits by 6 p.m. Friday.

Mucia plans to spend his time out of school during his suspension exploring his legal rights and options, Alcala said.

“I simply find the whole idea behind this kind of action to be really over the edge,” Ervin said. “I simply don’t understand why a young man would decide, after winning a contest and receiving money, he would do this to other students, to the school and to the community.”